1. Is There a Nordic Way?
Achievements and Problems with Gender in the Media from a Swedish
Perspective
Dr Maria Edstrom
Scientific coordinator
Nordicom, Nordic Information Centre for Media and
Communication Research

3. What do we mean by
media representation?
Media representations are everywhere ….
Factual – fictional
Norms, Identity & Difference
Visibility & Discrimination

4. ”For the most part we do not first see,
and then define, we define and then
see”
Walter Lippman in Public Opinion, 1922

5. Why is gender in the media
important?
Democratic
Editorial
Business/commercial
”You can’t be what you can’t see”
www.missrepresentation.org

6. An abundance of men in the
news …

7. … and an abundance of women in
advertisement

8. First female news presenter in Swedish radio had to be
anonymous
Complaints
• A mans job
• Horrible voice
• Hurt in the stomach
• Women should not
do that.
Complaint calls in 1938

9. Gender +
Gender never comes alone …
Mieke Verloo
http://www.quing.eu/

10. Ages of women and men in television
older
WOMEN MEN
senior adult
adult
Young adult
children &
youth
-30 0 30
© Maria Edström

11. FN Beijing 1995 Platform for Action
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/
Section J. Women and the Media
• Increase the participation and access of women to
expression and decision-making in and through the media and
new technologies of communication. Actions to be taken
• Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women
in the media. Actions to be taken.

12. Gender and Media Monitoring 2009/2010
www.whomakesthenews.org
108 countries from all continents
Online news
Collecting day Nov 10, 2009

13. Global news study
one day in 108 countries
• 16 734 news stories
• 35 343 news subjcets
• 20 769 reporters
and news presenters

14. 24 per cent female
news subjects
GMMP 2010
women are a minority
in the news
24
76
76 per cent male
news subject

15. Share of female news subjects, experts and reporters 2010
(www.whomakesthenews)
100
50
52
45
40 37
30 33 31 30 33
28 29 29
19 32 24 20
26 27 23 24
0 15
ar k l an
d
an
d ay de
n n ia n
m l or w e sto ea
De
n F in Ic e N Sw E a l m
G lo b
news subjects experts reporters

16. Share of female news subject in
Sweden and globally
Source: GMMP 1995-2010
50
31 32
30
24 Sweden
25 21 Global
17 18
0
1995 2000 2005 2010

17. Europe
Source: Edstrom 2008

18. Men and women in different types of television programmes (prime time year 2000)
Women Men
Children 42 58
Fiction 39 61
Culture/entertainment 33 67
Facts/reports 32 68
News 30 70
Sports 10 90
0% 50% 100%
© Maria Edström 2006

19. 500 newsrooms
59 countries
170 000 employees
73 percent of
the top
management are
men
Eastern Europe
& the Nordic
Region stands
out
Interviews and data collected in 2009, 32 news companies SE,FIN,DK,NO

20. NORDIC Europe
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden
• The 32 companies participating in the study together demonstrate a
relatively high degree of gender equality at all of the occupational level
in Nordic Europe.
• Denmark and Norway have fewer women in the senior professional
level (34% and 35%, respectively) than Finland and Sweden (51% and
49%, respectively).

21. Eastern Europe
Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia
and Ukraine
The 85 companies surveyed in this region show strong tendencies toward gender
egalitarianism. Men and women’s salaries are comparable across occupational
levelsfor the most part and women’s job security is excellent.
• Bulgarian newsrooms surveyed stand apart from most others across this and
other regions for women’s exceptionally high occupational standing.
• Women at the 10 news companies surveyed in Estonia enjoy a high degree of
equality.
• Women are in a particularly strong position in Russia, nearing parity in
topmanagement and holding around a third of governance positions.

22. Share of women as news subjects,
journalists and senior management
Source: GMMP 2010 & IWMF 2011
100
News subject
Journalist
Editor
49 51
50
40 41 39
35 37
32 32 34 34
31
26 27
24
0
Sweden Norway Finland Den mark Global

23. News rooms making a difference

24. Values in conflict?
Swedish media companies, journalists unions and politicians tend to
see gender equality claims on the media as a threat to press
freedom.

25. Editoral
routines
can make
a difference

26. Balancing gender in news subjects
Regional public service television in Umeå: Västerbottensnytt
60
56 56 57
50 54 55 55
46 45 45
40 44 44 43
women
30
Men
20
10
0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

27. The Model of SVT Västerbottensnytt
1. Have goals that are reachable. Do not ask for the moon in the
beginning. Raise the bar as you go along.
2. Do the monitoring every week. Gender equality is a boring day-to-day
work. It is like doing the dishes. You have to wash up after every meal
if you want to keep it clean. When you think you know how to do it
and the work is done, it will all rise and overflow its banks.
3. Have ongoing discussions on why or why not the goals are reached,
analyze and give feedback. If you do not know what is stopping you
will not know what it is that that makes you succeed.
4. Active Leadership. Gender equality is a management issue. You need to
coach both the group and the individual. Clarify structures and
communicate why gender equality is important. In the every day work,
constantly remind everyone of the importance of finding women to
interview. If you look for women every day you will actually reach a
representation of 50/50
(The model of Västerbottensnytt from 2005, translated by Edstrom, the
original document is in Swedish)

28. Rapports redaktion sommaren 2009

29. Transparency & dialogue
• Swedish largest daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, monitored
it self on diversity on the web.
• http://www.dn.se/blogg/mangfald/2011/04/06/dn-se-later-granska-dn-
se/

30. List of recommendations from Global Media Monitoring
Project 2010 www.whomakesthenews.org (p 57)
Increase womens participation by
• Creating and supporting regional expert databases
• promote
Kvinfo, DK
Shesource, US

31. Denmark ‐ the good example

32. EQUALISTERS – crowdsourcing experts

33. Aäm böcker
Don´t let the media
www.alltarmojligt.se change you.
Change them instead.

34. http://www.experta.nu/

35. New technology – old values
…?
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/elmirabayrasli/2011/05/09/the-twitter-
gender-gap/

36. ‘‘A murdered feminist is a good feminist’’ Citizen x
Feminist
news on
the web
• Feminist perspective -
http://www.feministisktperspektiv.se/
QuickTime och en
-dekomprimerare
krävs för att kunna se bilden.

37. Nordic Trends
• There is a gendered journalism culture
• Stagnation in representation since the 90-ties
• Variety of strategies in press, radio and television
• Slow processes in the news rooms - often linked to legislation
• Difficulties handling diversity : Gender out, ethnicity in?
• Problems with gendered hate speech both in social media and
traditional media
• Degendering language “family tragedy”
“single parents” “second earners”

38. Trends, initatives & actions
Unesco is developing gender indicators
Council of Europe Plea for tackling gender
stereotypes by strenghtening accountable journalism,
expert databases, websites for journalists
EIGE is mapping Beijing Follow up
Nordic countries?

39. Is there a Nordic Way? Yes and no.
• Gender awareness does not come automatically - for men or
women
• Strong state regulations that are promoting a gender equality
and balance of work life/private life has an impact.
• Regular monitoring and measurable goals improves gender
representation.
• Expert directories like Kvinfo seem to have an effect
• Conscious leadership matters

40. Without a gender conscious work the public
sphere will remain a male sphere for many
years to come.
maria.edstrom@nordicom.gu.se
@gendermaria
www.nordicom.gu.se

41. Useful links:
Global Media Monitoring project www.whomakesthenews.org
Women in the media & news
http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/2010/03/20/reality-check/
International Women’s Media Foundation www.iwmf.org
Getting the balance right- Gender equality in journalism
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-
URL_ID=28397&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
Gender Links www.genderlinks.org.za
Nordicom www.nordicom.gu.se
UN Women http://progress.unwomen.org
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/index.html
Beijing Platform for action
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/pdf/Beijing%20full%20report%20E.pdf